Tell everyone your website is here and to check it out!
Once your U3A website is built it will take Google and other search engines up to a month to find and show it when people type searches such as “activities or classes in myowntown”. People who know your website address can go there immediately which is why it’s important to tell everyone once your website is published and what the website address is!
- Here are some suggestions that you may wish to undertake.
- Tell organisations before your launch date
- Inform U3A Network Queensland, U3A Online and any other organisations within your area that you have a new website.
- Local libraries, community centres, and even some doctors surgeries may be willing to put up an advertisement for you even if it is just an A4 sheet or a poster to pin on a noticeboard.
Train your members and volunteer staff
The website will be new to your members and volunteer staff so training them to look for information here is essential. This is even more important as the world is moving towards the internet and digital way of providing information, rather than the paper way we have been used to for so many years.
Volunteer staff may need to be shown what information is on each of the web pages and explained when it is updated, such as when classes are advertised for the next term. Most U3A websites have a contact us page with an online contact form and it would be good for all volunteer staff and members to be familiar with using this.
You can have separate training sessions for members if this is appropriate, or you can have your tutors or volunteers staff do a small introduction on the website at the beginning of classes.
Produce posters and advertise